Goodbye February, Hello March

What does a Piedmont/Zone 7b garden look like as the month of February comes to a close? More white than green, as the photos (taken 2/26/15) show!

Snow days, together with an enforced (left) 6-week wrist-resting period due to a diagnosis of de Quervain's Tenosynovitis, have conspired to limit my outdoor activities in February. I missed checking off most...if not all...of the items on the To Do list (as shown in this previous post). Instead, you will likely have found yours truly inside, in front of the fire, holding a steaming cup of coffee rather than a garden trowel. Still, I have continued to study seed catalogs and draw up plans for the 2015 gardens (in pencil...in my garden journal...:-).

Looking ahead to the ten-day weather forecast, it is easy to see that we are headed for warmer temps. Time to think in earnest about March!

Here's what my own "To Do in March" list looks like:

Soil: Bed and Row Preparation —

1. Our heavy Piedmont clay soil is very wet going into March, so we'll check the soil before digging, cultivating, or tilling in any of the gardens. [Walking on wet soil will cause it to compact, but we have gone completely to raised beds and raised rows, connected in a system of wide pathways.] We'll test the moisture level in the soil the old-fashioned way: make a small ball of it in the palm — if it wads up and sticks together it is too wet; if it is fairly crumbly — we are good to go to work the soil.
2. When we can work the soil in the row garden, we will add amendments, such as compost and leaf mold, to allow for better drainage. This will make the native clay soil more friable...to give the soil "good tilth." Tilth is the "physical condition of the soil as it relates to tillage ease, seedbed quality, easy seedling emergence, and deep root penetration." While peat moss is often recommended as an amendment, it adds to the acidity (decreasing the pH), and our soil test showed a typical Piedmont soil with a pH in the range of 5.2-5.9, which is too low to support (almost all) healthy, productive veggies. We've added line to raise the pH per our soil test report, so we won't use peat moss to negate all our efforts.
3. Raised beds provide better drainage, so they will be workable before the row garden. Each raised bed will get 1-2 bags of compost prior to planting, along with a fluffing up to decrease compaction from the snowfall.

Veggies and Herbs — 

1. St. Patrick's Day is the traditional time to plant English peas and potatoes. The peas will go on the fence surrounding the Block Garden, and the potatoes will go in the grow bags.
2. We hope to be seeing the first shoots of asparagus, which is in its 5th year of production in its own bed. Last fall, we covered the bed with the compost-rich soil from the potato grow bags to help keep the crowns in place during winter heaving. We should be able to enjoy harvesting this perennial for 4-5 weeks, beginning when soil temps reach 50 degrees. While asparagus dislike sharing their space with anything else, I might add some pansies here this spring. They'll add color, and we can use the blooms in salads.
3. Speaking of salads, it'll soon be time to seed lettuce, carrots, spinach, and beets. We will also be setting out transplants of broccoli and cabbage.
4. Since most herbs are Mediterranean natives, it is too early to think about planting them prior to the average last date of frost (typically quoted as April 15 for our area). It is time to give the rosemary a nice haircut, and I'll check on the other perennials (sage, thyme, and oregano). I will start seeds of annuals dill and parsley indoors, and I'll move my pots of chives outside on the inevitable warm days.

Orchard and Berry Patch — 

1. Since we haven't already done it, we will have to prune the fruit trees (including apples, pears, peaches, plum, crab apples, and a cherry), the grape vines, and the berry bushes such as blackberries. After pruning, we will spray fruit trees, berry bushes, and canes with Lime Sulfur Spray. It is organic and protects against scales, mites, and borers. It's a dormant spray, so we will have to apply before the plants begin to bud out.
2. I have concerns about the blueberry bushes, which have swollen buds that are exposed to the current snow and freezing conditions. We had a decreased harvest in 2014 due to a very late snow and hard freeze in April (which also eliminated all fruits in the Orchard). We shall see...

Roses, Grasses, Perennials, and Shrubs —

1. When the forsythia blooms, it's time to prune the roses, following the 5-D plan: removing dead, diseased, damaged (trim back winter-killed rose canes to one inch below blackened area), diagonal (crossing), and dinky (any canes smaller than a pencil). Then we will prune remaining canes to about a foot or two above ground level. (This does not apply to the climbing roses, which get pruned after blooming.)We will also begin to deal with pests now by applying a dormant spray, like All Seasons Horticultural Spray Oil. We will also transplant roses at this time.
2. We will prune summer-blooming shrubs such as butterfly bushes (buddlea) and crape myrtle (although we will avoid "crape murder"!). We will wait to prune our spring-blooming shrubs (such as forsythia and azalea) until they've finished blooming so we don't cut off this year's flowers. Since we haven't pruned the azalea for 5 years and they have all grown too tall and are not blooming as well, we plan to rejuvenate them by using "severe pruning," with the electric trimmer, "whacking" the whole plant down to within 6"- 12" of the ground. It is amazing how fast shrubs will grow back following this severe pruning and they will have much better form and flowers in coming years.
3. We will cut back the dead stems of any perennials or grasses before or as the plants put out new growth. On the lamppost in the front yard, we have a jackmanii Clematis in pruning Group 3, which blooms on new wood. They can be cut nearly to the ground just before growth begins in March before new growth begins.

That should give us plenty to do, don't you think?!

Happy hoeing!